Information and commentary about the struggle for democracy in the African kingdom of Swaziland

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

KING SHOWS HE IS ABSOLUTE MONARCH

Swaziland’s King Mswati III has proved that he is an absolute monarch who rules his kingdom, disregarding parliament and the law courts.

Today (7 June 2011), it is revealed that King Mswati instructed the House of Assembly and Senate not to discuss the land scam scandal engulfing Barnabas Dlamini, the man the king illegally appointed Prime Minister, and several of the PM’s cabinet colleagues.

King Mswati also ordered Dlamini to drop a High Court case he was pursuing to allow him to keep the land he purchased at a knock-down price.

Instead, the king says he will decide what will happen about the land. That means he will bypass both parliament and the law courts over a scandal that has caused public outrage in Swaziland for months.

When King Mswati pronounces, that will be the end of the matter: for his word is law.

The king’s decision to intervene was kept private. Yesterday, the media were excluded from a joint meeting of the House of Assembly and Senate at which the king’s dictate was given.

Swazi parliamentarians, who are clueless at the best of times, have taken the king’s intervention without a murmur. If a report in today’s Times of Swaziland is to be believedthey were more concerned about the way the message from the throne was delivered. It seems there was not what they considered to be sufficient pomp and ceremony.

The Times also reported that parliament was instructed to form a 10-person committee which was due to seek an audience with the king last night to receive in detail his pronouncement.

So there we have it: we shouldn’t be fooled into believing there is even a semblance of democracy in Swaziland. The truth is there for all to see: King Mswati is indeed an absolute monarch.